Tuesday, May 11

The Andersonstown News this week is full of victory for the Sinn Fein camp, and while their is honour in them holding true to their ideals, one has to wonder where the electorate features in all of this. This isn't about being the biggest party, nor is it about getting Martin McGuinness into the first minister position, this is about how to serve the electorate. No where in any write up in the Andersonstown news do I see the word 'cuts', and how Sinn Fein as an abstentionist party will deal with them. It's about victory, and that is honourable, but to concentrate on victory, or who is the biggest boy in the playground is to miss the point entirely.

Yesterdays hungerstrike march in Belfast passed off relatively peacefully, and according to the Irish News from today the people behind the parade and the unionist community spokesperson were not seeking conflict with each other, but each had a point to make.

On the side of the community they were interested in highlighting what they see as double standards from republicans over the parades issue. On the side of the marchers , they merely wanted to commerate their dead.

Sunday, May 2

The residents of Brown Square protested today as the parade passed. There wasn't many of them, but it did look strange that the protest at parades issue was on the other foot.

There weren't many protesters there, around two dozen, and they did not come anywhere near the marchers, there was enough police about to ensure the two sides did not come into immediate contact with each other, and although the atmosphere was tense the march passed the disputed part of the route without any major incidents at all.

I was at the united independent hungerstrike commeration through Belfast today, and there wasn't a shinner about the place, which is really something. Their absence was particularly noticeable in west Belfast where even the gates into Dunville park were blocked by a large barrier. The side gates were all open and the Falls road had hardly anyone to greet the marchers as they came up it. No crowds were waiting despite the march being well advertised through the Irish News.